-excerpt:Do you trust us was the only question you had to answer to buy a ticket to attend Funconf, a conference organized in Dublin, Ireland. There was no list of speakers, a schedule or venue information - if you trusted the organizers, you didn't need know that. This is what happened next.

+excerpt:Do you trust us was the only question you had to answer to buy a ticket to attend Funconf, a conference organized in Dublin, Ireland. There was no list of speakers, a schedule or venue information - if you trusted the organizers, you didn't need to know that. This is what happened next.

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-"Do you trust us?" was the only question you had to answer to buy a ticket to attend [Funconf](http://2012.funconf.com/), a conference organized in Dublin, Ireland. There was no list of speakers, a schedule or venue information - if you trusted the organizers, you didn't need know that. I'm lucky enough to consider [Eamon](https://twitter.com/EamonLeonard), one of the organizers, a great friend of mine and I didn't really need any convincing.

+"Do you trust us?" was the only question you had to answer to buy a ticket to attend [Funconf](http://2012.funconf.com/), a conference organized in Dublin, Ireland. There was no list of speakers, a schedule or venue information - if you trusted the organizers, you didn't need to know that. I'm lucky enough to consider [Eamon](https://twitter.com/EamonLeonard), one of the organizers, a great friend of mine and I didn't really need any convincing.

-Stories about previous conferences happening in a bus or in a castle in a middle of nowhere have been floating around for years. Furthermore, all previous attendees mentioned that it will be a lifetime experience and an opportunity to be part of something extraordinary.

+Stories about previous conferences happening in a bus or in a castle in the middle of nowhere have been floating around for years. Furthermore, all previous attendees mentioned that it will be a lifetime experience and an opportunity to be part of something extraordinary.

<img src="/blog/images/now-what.jpg" alt="" class="left" />

The only piece of information we were given was to meet at Radisson Blu hotel in Dublin at 8:30AM. After a much required coffee, we were greeted by Eamon and [Paul](https://twitter.com/paulca), and had a chance to listen to [Werner Vogels](https://twitter.com/Werner), CTO of Amazon, talk about Amazon Silk and his view on current state of the Internet.

-I'm pretty sure this was partly done to show the difference between Funconf and other conferences as we were then packed into three party buses, and with a help of police escort, driven to Heuston train station. It should have been a pretty spectacular view from the street as part of the convoy was also 3 [DeLoreans](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLorean_DMC-12). A car which become one of the icons of Funconf.

+I'm pretty sure this was partly done to show the difference between Funconf and other conferences as we were then packed into three party buses, and with the help of a police escort, driven to Heuston train station. It must have been a pretty spectacular view from the street as three [DeLoreans](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLorean_DMC-12) were also part of the convoy. A car which become one of the icons of Funconf.

Apparently you can hire trains, thus we had a whole train for ourselves and few hours later we made it to Galway, where we were split into small groups and driven a bit further where... we were greeted by three helicopters waiting to pick us up and fly to [Inis Mór](http://wikitravel.org/en/Inis_M%C3%B3r) island. Pretty cool, huh?

-It's a pretty big island, but of course it doesn't have any single hotel which would be able to host more than 100 people, hence we were split into small groups again and stayed at a few bed&breakfast places all over the island. It was very impressive to see everyone having complete trust in what was happening, even if we had absolutely no idea what will happen next.

+It's a pretty big island, but of course it doesn't have any single hotel which would be able to host more than 100 people, hence we were split into small groups again and stayed at a few bed&breakfast places all over the island. It was very impressive to see everyone having complete trust in what was happening, even if we had absolutely no idea what would happen next.

<img src="/blog/images/submarine.jpg" alt="" class="right" />

@@ -26,25 +26,25 @@ What happened next disappointingly wasn't a submarine, but two days of making ne

It is a great feeling to meet people who share some of your views and discuss the differences. For example quite a lot of attendees have organized or are organizing conferences all over the world, thus we had a lot of stories and tips to share. As far as I can tell, a few people decided to organize something just because of the inspiration given by others. Being inspired was definitely one of the main themes.

-A lot of conferences are organized to host talks so people could learn new things. Funconf was organized so one could establish new friendships. I leave it up to you to decide which one is more important, but let me put it this way - there was not a single person who was disappointed or missed learning how to use the next framework.

+A lot of conferences are organized to host talks so people could learn new things. Funconf was organized so one could establish new friendships. I'll leave it up to you to decide which one is more important, but let me put it this way - there was not a single person who was disappointed or missed learning how to use the next framework.

-During a *normal* conference it's very hard to create a intimate environment (that sounded really wrong), thus even if you meet some people, those relationships usually stay at the professional level. Funconf was very different. Throughout the conference there was a *smell* of inspiration, excitement and joy. Oh and Guinness.

+During a *normal* conference it's very hard to create an intimate environment (that sounded really wrong), thus even if you meet some people, those relationships usually stay at the professional level. Funconf was very different. Throughout the conference there was a *smell* of inspiration, excitement and joy. Oh and Guinness.

<img src="/blog/images/blind-follow.jpg" alt="" class="center" />

-Once you put people in a middle of nowhere magic happens. Funconf had a feeling of all attendees being a part of family-like group, blindly following each other to enjoy their time. You could just walk up to anyone and start talking, about the yesterday's helicopter ride for example, and people were open. I haven't met Werner before, but since I do so much work across all Amazon services, I ended up explaining our stack and how we use Amazon infrastructure to build our business.

+Once you put people in a middle of nowhere magic happens. Funconf had a feeling of all attendees being a part of family-like group, blindly following each other to enjoy their time. You could just walk up to anyone and start talking, about the yesterday's helicopter ride for example, and people were open. I hadn't met Werner before, but since I do so much work across all Amazon services, I ended up explaining our stack and how we use Amazon infrastructure to build our business.

-I would like to believe Wade enjoyed this, as he learned how we are pioneering some of the technologies only a few people are even aware of. During events like this, people are open to discuss a lot of things they wouldn't be willing to share publicly otherwise. There is an ongoing trust.

+I would like to believe Wade enjoyed this, as he learned how we are pioneering some of the technologies only a few people are even aware of. During events like this, people are open to discussing a lot of things they wouldn't be willing to share publicly otherwise. There is an ongoing trust.

I've been to Ireland before and always loved their approach to life - they are really the sort of people who preach "Work hard, Play hard". I also happen to love Irish folk music, so I enjoyed listening Kila play a lot.

<img src="/blog/images/stone-steps.jpg" alt="" class="right" />

-At the same time it only took a first few beats and most of the people started dancing, in a fashion what I can only describe as an Irish [moshpit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshing). Once the band finished played, everyone left covered in sweat, tired, but having given their all to enjoy their time. By that time, all initial shyness was long gone and everyone felt like we knew each other for a long time.

+At the same time it only took a first few beats and most of the people started dancing, in a fashion what I can only describe as an Irish [moshpit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshing). Once the band finished played, everyone left covered in sweat, tired, but having given their all to enjoy their time. By that time, all initial shyness was long gone and everyone felt like we'd known each other for a long time.

-Some of the previous attendees have said that Funconf was a life changing experience. I can see why - I paid €1'000 for a ticket, but I think the value I got from this was worth more than that. I always preached that at any conference you go to the people you meet, the conversations you have are much more important than the talks themselves. Mainly because it's very unlikely that a conference is filled with really great talks.

+Some of the previous attendees have said that Funconf was a life changing experience. I can see why - I paid €1'000 for a ticket, but I think the value I got from this was worth more than that. I always preached that at any conference you go to, the people you meet and the conversations you have are much more important than the talks themselves. Mainly because it's very unlikely that a conference is filled with really great talks.

-So rather than sitting and getting bored at a talk you don't like, just hang out at a halfway and talk to people. They will tell you stories which could be worth way more. For example I met [Marco](https://twitter.com/marcoslot) during FunConf who is working on self-driving cars as his PhD project, not sure when I will have a chance again to talk about this with someone.

+So rather than sitting and getting bored by a talk you don't like, just hang out at a hallway and talk to people. They will tell you stories which could be worth way more. For example I met [Marco](https://twitter.com/marcoslot) during FunConf who is working on self-driving cars as his PhD project, not sure when I will have a chance again to talk about this with someone.

This year was the third year Funconf was happening and sadly it was the last one... it's best to finish while you are the top, as [Tom](https://twitter.com/mojombo), one of the founders of GitHub put it. Which leaves a great opportunity for other people to step up and create something as special as Funconf was.